Megan Gazdick from the organization A Little Helping Hand with Mary Parker, a disabled grandmother from Camden who takes care of her 8 grandsons, during a grocery store shopping spree on Saturday. The organization, co-founded by Washington Township native Evan Winokur and Tabernacle native T.J. Eaton, bought more than $700 worth of food as well as toys and necessities for her family. (Photo provided)

To Mary Parker, a disabled grandmother from Camden raising eight grandsons on her own, Evan Winokur is a Christmas Miracle.

The Washington Township native and Philadelphia school teacher came into Parker’s life after hearing about her struggles while dropping off his nonprofit organization A Little Helping Hand’s annual donation to the Camden Head Start preschool.

Winokur and his co-founder, T.J. Eaton, created A Little Helping Hand five years ago to provide a toy, hat, gloves and scarf to children in need. This year, they were able to donate to each of the 842 children in both the Camden and Philadelphia Head Start programs. They were busy preparing this year’s donations with the Head Start staff, however, when he heard about Parker and realized his work wasn’t done yet.

When a Head Start employee reached out to Parker to tell her Winokur wanted to help put food on her table and presents under her tree for her boys — ages 15, 10, 9, 7, 5, 4, 2 and 17 months — she couldn’t believe it.

“[Parker] started crying and [the employee] started crying, then I called [Parker] and I cried,” Winokur said.

On Saturday, he and his fiancé, Megan Gazdick, took Parker on a grocery store shopping spree — and the tears of joy kept on coming.

“I can’t get over it,” Parker said. “I was so shocked, when we got to the store, he said ‘Get as many shopping carts as you can.’ I was in shock, I’m so grateful to him ... It has really been a blessing for me and my grandchildren just to have someone as kind and wonderful as he.”

More than $700 in groceries later, Winokur and Gazdick were able to make sure each of the growing boys — they currently go through 20 boxes of pasta a week — has plenty of food for the holidays.

As they were delivering and unpacking all of the food into Parker’s kitchen, however, they realized the boys were expecting Santa’s arrival on Christmas, but Parker wasn’t able to give them the Christmas she wanted them to have so badly.

“I felt so bad. I wanted them to have a nice Christmas and a nice dinner for them,” Parker said. “And this wonderful man comes and just made a big difference in my life.”

Under the guise that Santa “accidentally” delivered the boys’ presents to Winokur’s house instead of theirs, he’ll be visiting them on Christmas morning with a big bag of gifts.

“They need things like shoes and socks and shirts and clothes, so we’re buying them necessities but also things that when children walk down the stairs at 4 a.m. on Christmas is going to make them scream and jump and be happy,” Winokur said.

Evan Winokur, co-founder of the A Little Helping Hand organization, holds Mary Parker's grandson Jayden after donating more than $700 in groceries to the Camden family. (Photo provided)

He’s insistent that he could never bring that joy, or joy to the more than 800 other children in need they’ve helped this year, without the constant support he’s found for A Little Helping Hand.

“The only reason we have this organization is because people donate, families and friends and friends of family, they’ve been so generous through the years,” Winokur said. “Without them, we wouldn’t have the ability to help that many children.”

They started the nonprofit in 2008, when Eaton’s wife, Patty, a doctor now based in North Jersey, was doing her residency in Camden. They started with helping 110 kids in the Camden Head Start, spending every dime of their first year of donations on the children.

“It’s just grown and grown from there,” Winokur said. Two years ago, they brought the Philadelphia Head Start program into the mix, nearly doubling their impact.

While the holiday season winds down, however, his work fundraising and buying toys starts all over again.

“Right after Christmas we buy a lot of our gifts because they’re 60 percent and 70 percent off,” Winokur said. “If people would like to donate and help, we still need every dollar.”

With more donations, he’s hoping he’ll be able to repeat the Parker’s Christmas miracle for even more children next year.